Entering Solomon Islands by G. F. Jones

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 25, 1914

Entering Solomon Islands

By G. F. Jones

G. F. JONES

Before this gets into print we trust we shall have reached the Solomon Islands, to which event we are looking forward with joy. To the people of these islands, as to all other tongues, the glad tidings of the gospel message that prepares a people for the coming of the Lord will be proclaimed.

The British resident commissioner says in his handbook: "The group of the Solomon Islands is undoubtedly the most important group in the Pacific south of the equator, both on account of the size, fertility, and future possibilities. Very little has been known about the Solomons by the outside public up to the present time, but they are rapidly growing in importance."

Another writer, the latest, says: "Until recently very little has been known about them, and even today exploration has not been pushed through the interior of the major islands. The islands are of great beauty. The mountains are densely wooded, and the shore is of gleaming white. Deep natural harbors abound.

. . . We are all amazed at the beautiful scene which presented itself to our gaze.

. . . The people are a small, sturdy race, about four feet and four inches in average height, and well proportioned. . . . They possess a degree of intelligence surprising in a people so savage and barbarous. They are the most inveterate head-hunters of the western Pacific, and fighting and butchering is the main business of their life."

"It is only necessary to move a few miles, and there will be found people who speak an entirely different tongue. The population is difficult to estimate. The census enumerator has too high a value of his own life to venture into the interior."

On account of the wet, malarial, and sickly season that is now prevailing there, we have postponed our arrival until the drier season begins, as we need the best of weather in which to pioneer so dangerous and difficult a field.